COVID-19 cases due to the mu variant have worried doctors in cities such as Houston and Los Angeles, even as infectious disease experts maintain the strain will not overtake delta’s virulence and high transmission rate.
To date, mu has been detected in Washington, D.C., and every state except for Nebraska. California has recorded the most mu variant samples so far, with 399 out of almost 142,000 total genetically sequenced infection samples. Florida has reported the second-highest number with 305 — roughly 0.5% of total COVID-19 infections genetically mapped out in the state.
For now, though, the delta variant is the greater threat.
“What delta has done and why it has superseded all other variants is because it really has acquired this ability to be so transmissible. I understand people definitely are worrying about the mu variant or looking at it, but it just epidemiologically hasn’t managed to replace delta [in terms of transmissibility],” Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California at San Francisco, told the Washington Examiner.
WHO TRACKING NEW ‘MU’ CORONAVIRUS VARIANT
The World Health Organization labeled mu as a variant of interest on Aug. 30 due to “a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” adding that the strain, first identified in Colombia in January, has now been detected in about 40 countries. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not labeled the variant as one of interest or concern, though it has been detected in nearly every state.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, said last week the administration is keeping an eye on the variant’s evolutionary path, but it does not consider mu “an immediate threat.”
Gandhi said the coronavirus is expected to mutate into more transmissible strains, but it will not do so indefinitely. That’s because more and more people will get some immunity through either the vaccine or from previous infection. Additionally, the evolutionary biology of viruses does not allow for every mutation to become more dangerous than the last.
“It’s just not in their interests,” Gandhi said. “If anything, they’re going to mutate to become less virulent and more transmissible, and the mu variant does not show us that. We’re not convinced that it’s more virulent … Probably, delta is it. This is the variant that’s going to probably be the worst we have in terms of transmissibility.”
Still, hospitals in hot spot states have recently reported an uptick in mu variant cases. Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, one of the nation’s first health systems to impose a coronavirus vaccine mandate resulting in the resignation or termination of more than 150 staff, has reported more than 50 confirmed mu variant cases dating back to May. But Dr. Wesley Long, medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist and a clinical pathologist, stressed delta is still enemy variant No. 1.
“Outside of Colombia, Mu may not be a very big deal,” Long said last week in a tweet. “Similar to [lambda variant] in Peru / South America, and [gamma variant] in Brazil.”
The mu strain has also accounted for 167 new COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County, where COVID-related hospitalizations have risen 12% in the past two weeks. New case increases have slowed, but infections are still so high people are now required to wear face masks in public indoor settings, such as public transportation, office buildings, and retail stores.
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Mu remains a more pressing health issue in Colombia, where it has made up 87.5% of cases in Colombia in the past four weeks, compared to .2% in the United States, according to the GISAID Initiative that promotes the rapid sharing of data, such as genetic sequencing from all influenza viruses and the coronavirus mutations causing COVID-19. In the U.S., delta still accounts for more than 99% of cases.
“Worried about the Mu variant? … Don’t,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, said in a tweet over the weekend. “While we are still learning, doubt [the mu variant will] displace Delta. And our vaccines should hold up fine. I don’t lose sleep over new variants. I worry about people’s fatigue with the current one.”
